At early voting stations that open Saturday across the state, chicken suits are being added to the list of banned campaign material such as political buttons, shirts, hats and signs within 100 feet of polling places.

In this election year, wearing a chicken costume would be an “inappropriate and obvious” advocacy message against one particular candidate for U.S. Senate, said Washoe County Registrar of Voters Dan Burk.

Secretary of State Ross Miller agreed. “They cannot,” Miller said, when asked if people could go to the polls dressed as a chicken.

“We will be sending a letter to the county clerks that’s prohibited conduct within polling places for elections,” he said.

National as well as local media have had a field day with U.S. Senate Republican hopeful Sue Lowden and her response to the high cost of health care: Patients should barter with their doctors like they did in the “olden days” when “our grandparents would bring a chicken to the doctor.”

In the two-week period for early voting, Washoe voters can go to up to 14 different locations to cast their ballots.

Burk is asking voters to bring their entire sample ballot, not just the insert, so they will bring a bar code on the back of the ballot cover. That will speed up the process to check off participating voters.

Burk predicts 20-25 percent of voters will turn out for the primary. That compares with 19.8 percent of Washoe voters participated in the primary in 2008.

Across Nevada, Miller said about 18 percent voted in the 2008 primary and 30 percent in the 2006 primary.

With that history, “I expect 20-25 percent unfortunately,” he said.

He encouraged people to vote.

“We have very significant races for U.S. senator and governor and all the state constitutional officers,” Miller said.

While there was no upsurge in new voter registrations in the last few weeks, Burk said there was a last-minute rush of county voters changing parties so they could vote in one particular race.

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Washoe Democrats now outnumber Republicans by 0.3 percent.

“It’s absolutely a dead heat between the two,” Burk said.

Washoe Democrats had gained a 0.5 percent lead over Republicans in the general election of 2008 after Republicans had outnumbered Democrats for 15 years.

Non-partisan voters make up 15 percent of the voting pool, same as for the general election in 2008. That’s in contrast to some parts of the country where their numbers have grown.

Given a large field of candidates in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate and another for governor, including the incumbent, Burk expects the highest turnout among Republicans in the primary.

With 12 Republicans in the U.S. Senate race, “it may come down to a few votes in deciding the winner,” he said.

Burk said many voters likely will be interested in non-partisan races for mayor in Reno and Sparks as well as Assembly races and county commission races.

Burk predicts most people will cast their ballots before the primary election day of June 8.

Since the first 2,500 Washoe residents cast early ballots in 1986, about 101,000 people or 62 percent voted early in the general election in 2008.

“That’s just an amazing sea change in the way people choose to vote,” Burk said.